Woodway Square Apartments

I know what you are thinking, it is a great price in a great neighborhood, how could it be that bad. Well, you could wake up one morning to find 6 feet of water damage on your bedroom ceiling. That was the *first* apartment. That’s right, we had to relocate after less than 3 months of living here to a more expensive apartment after the water damage in the first apartment made it uninhabitable, all at our own expense. Then, a month later, we had water damage of the new apartment (again in the master bedroom), which took more than a week and numerous phone calls/​emails to resolve. «Don’t worry, this happens all the time» was the refrain that we kept hearing from the office, and it sure is true.
Then, three weeks later, our disposal broke and gushed water under the kitchen sink. It took three maintenance requests, an email, and three phone calls to get that problem «fixed;» however, the maintenance guys still have not come back to paint or seal the new wood under our sink. Tonight, we got home from visiting family for Christmas to find our fridge/​freezer stopped working while we were gone so we have an enormous amount of rotting food. I can’t wait to see how long it takes to get that addressed. In case you are counting, we have lived here 5 ½ months.
UPDATE: The maintenance manager arrived first thing in the morning to fix the refrigerator and with the help of another guy got it working again by noon. They also painted under our sink, and I received an email from the apartment manager.
On the plus side, the pool is nice, and the park in the center is beautiful. Also, they are super dog friendly. Unfortunately, we have to board our dog each time we have one of these issues for the maintenance workers to enter our apartment.

I have lived in several Houston area apartment complexes over the past six years. The experience I have had at Woodway Square has, so far, been on the higher end of the quality spectrum. The office staff are quite friendly, though a little scattered at times. The grounds are especially well kept considering the large amount of outdoor amenities and loose dog policies. The buildings are old, and they definitely act old. We have had the washing machine, garbage disposal, several light bulbs, and some kitchen plumbing all replaced in the short time we have lived here. The maintenance staff seems to have no real idea on fixing things and merely just replaces parts when they can. Not complaining, since that seems to fix the issues. The area is extremely calm and quiet, despite the massive construction project across the street and the large church. I feel safe and secure every moment of the day. Noise is noise, and nothing you won’t find elsewhere. For the price we pay, I have been very happy.
Parking is a dream, with multiple garages and street parking. Neighbors are friendly, but keep to themselves. Not too many kids or young adults. Kind of better suited to the 30+ crowd.
I do wish the fridge had an ice maker that worked well and a water system that didn’t have black flakes of God-​knows-​what in it from time to time (an issue I can never seem to produce for maintenance).

Easy affordable living with spacious units. Wonderful management and maintenance. My place flooded from a pipe in the bathroom and they flipped the whole place from wreck to better than it even was before in less than 48 hours.

PRO’s — Good location, VERY roomy closets, attractive grounds/​pool area, Dog park.
Maintenance has improved since there is a new foreman to supervise the work requests and crews.
CON’s — CHEAP, POOR quality features such as carpet, tile, bath enclosure and shower knobs. I would expect cheap features in a cheap apartment however the rent here for a 2 bed/​2 bath is about $ 2K per month.
Several front office staff demonstrate poor customer service skills however they never seem to last more than a few months.

UPDATE: I found out from maintenance that the reason the people above were so loud was because they took out the carpet and installed wood floors. This should have been a violation of the lease and the people should have been asked to repair the damages. Instead I had to deal with their noise. I know the apartment knows about it because the maintenance people go in and out. Of course when I told the office about it they said «oh well that was done before this new company bought the apartment» (seems to be the excuse they always use) Im sorry but this is unacceptable, I was glad that I could switch to a 3^rd floor unit but probably will not renew my lease.

This apartment complex is still an absolute mess compares to how nice it was when I first moved in. There is constant trash all over the grass and sidewalks, overflowing on and around the recycling and garbage bins as well as dog droppings all over the place. This week — somebody dumped a USED pile of cat litter right next to the path to my building!!! DISGUSTING.

I looked at many properties before deciding on Woodway Square. For the location, rent price & amenities it is the best value for me. I wanted hard wood floors, upgraded kitchen appliances, washer/​dryer & oversized tub, all of which I have in my apt. Although, the floors are laminate they are good quality. I was impressed with Jency who helped answer all of my questions & with my move-​in needs (very professional). It’s so quiet & the property is well maintained. I had a major issue with a neighbor’s dog pooping near my patio & Jency went above & beyond to be sure the situation was taken care. That has been my only issue to date. Parking is never an issue. Love the pool area where I inadvertently met the leasing office manger (didn’t realize she was the mgr!) She was very warm & welcoming toward me. Some people complain about hearing their neighbor’s & if you live in an apt it’s a GIVEN this will happen. I’ve never lived in an apt where I didn’t hear my neighbors. Overall a pleasant place to live & call home!

We downsized a few yrs ago and found this complex the perfect alternative to living in a house. We have two spacious bedrooms and bathrooms, laundry room, walk-​thru kitchen and nice sized living and dining room space. For the money, you can’t find an apartment home this size and with individual screened in patios, covered parking, large, lush park, comfortable walking trail, tennis courts, sand volleyball area and outdoor barbeques with ample seating for get togethers. The management is super helpful, always attending to matters and the maintenance crew is thorough with their jobs. Since we have lived here, the owners have changed, and the new owners/​management are trying to improve all the areas that the previous owners did not attend to. so, there is some work left to do, but overall, we love living at Woodway Square in Houston. PS: We have looked at other options, but after discovering their use of square footage and grassy areas (Woodway Square is more like a home, not a hotel), we know we made the right decision three years ago.
JDornak

This place has great amenities and the managers are very professional and always willing to help.

I’m a current resident and will not be renewing my lease after 3yrs. Lincoln managed this property when I first moved in and they were great. Fairfield took it over right after I signed my second lease. They’re very similar to Camden in management style. Spend lots of money on outside and then «update» interior with cheap upgrades that fall apart after 6 months. They take an eternity to do anything as well. Gym out of service for months. Dog park closed for months on end and service requests not addressed in a timely manner. Bottom line: its all about the most profit at the least amount of work.

I wrote a good review in 2011.
However, just recently (sometime in the spring) new management took over. They suck! The airheads in the office are so lazy that it takes forever for them to acknowledge that they have received a package for your unit. I have had numerous packages delivered by UPS, Fedex, USPS that are delivered on certain date and time — you are luckly if you can get one of the «professionals» in the office to get out of a chair and go get it in a few days. You see they have to «log» it in — if the too lazy person does not log it in when received, it apparently has not been received until they do!
Tip of the iceberg — make an appointment for service — no one ever shows up on the scheduled day! They totally disregard that you have an alarm service or pets; they come right on in when they damned well please. I have a mudhole in front of my apt, it has been there for over three years — they will plant some ground cover any day now — NOT. The office staff has no discretion on any issue; they just sit there like parking meters and parrot «That is our policy.» Please don’t make the mistake I did when I renewed — only 11 months until I can get out of here.

Updated to reflect all repairs to ceiling hole completed satisfactorily. New management company sent out survey to ask me about the work order response by WWS staff, which was responded to quite promptly (and personally) by property manager by telephone call — something I never experienced with Lincoln Properties, prior to Fairfield taking over.
Also discussed in the call: several other repairs, upgrades to the property that were not completed prior to the sale of the property to the new owners, because, well, the property was for sale. Now that the new owners have taken over, Management assures residents that lots of improvements are in the works.
Can’t wait to see!

If anyone was considering Woodway Square, I would tell them that it costs way too much. You pay for location, not the service. To me, it isn’t worth it. I can also tell you that my rent was the LOWEST out of all of the units of the same size (smallest –735 SF) because I spent months negotiating it. They are jacking up the rents to ridiculous levels to get back up to «market rent». I can’t pay $ 1020 a month to live by myself, not including pet rent, utilities or any other bills, which is what my renewal rate would have been (as of May 2012).
I would also mention that maintenance is very slow. There have been multiple occasions when I would have to put in a request more than once. It didn’t seem to matter if I emailed, requested it on the resident portal, or actually went to the office. It still didn’t get done. I was without a toilet for five days once, which I believe is illegal. Also, when I had leak from the ceiling from the above apartment, it took days to fix, and they never repaired the ceiling or the paint, even though I asked many times.
They also have no concerns for your safety and will say anything to appease you in the moment, with no plans to actually follow through and keep their word. If there were any spaces in the garage for me to park (the ones near my building are always full when I get home), I would have concerns about leaving my car there. The garages are NOT secure. They claim to have video monitoring (there are signs everywhere) but these signs are a LIE! They only have motion activated cameras at the garage exits and it was discovered that those don’t even work! Criminals have figured this out. There have been so many break ins and car thefts recently. Oh, and another thing, they WON’T tell you when a crime has happened. Well, they might, but months later. My first summer, they were having lots of break-​ins by guys dressed as painters during their renovations. Details like that would have been nice to know. There was also a man going around exposing himself to women and soliciting them a couple years ago. He was never caught.
What about MY experience at Woodway Square? I’ve been locked out when the gate codes were changed without notice. (On the plus side, they DO change them when residents complain enough.) They’ve sent out the personal information (name, email, address) of ALL residents to all other residents on multiple occasions. When confronted, they always claim they’ll pay more attention, but it keeps happening. I don’t believe a word anyone in the management office says anymore. I just consider them to be constantly lying to me, because all the results of their «efforts» have proven they don’t care. In fact, managemnt staff turns over so often, I don’t even have a clue who works there anymore. I’ve had my furniture moved and my door left unlocked from maintenance that I did not request nor give permission for.
Also, if you don’t want to hear your neighbors, don’t live here. I could hear every step of my upstairs neighbors, every whine from the downstairs dogs, and I could even tell when someone was watching a movie.
I love the amenities, yes. Especially the dog park, which I used practically daily. That’s what made me choose WWS, the amenities. It looks great, sounds great, but I can assure you, that there’s a darker truth under the landscaped exterior.
I decided to move out because it simply wasn’t worth the cost. I didn’t feel safe. I felt like I was being ripped off. And above all, I felt mistreated and taken advantage of. I could never recommend this place to anyone, especially someone living alone. My lease ends at the end of this month and I am so happy to be free of this place.
As a side note, I moved a few miles further out and got twice the space (1500 SF, 2 BD, 2.5 BA, townhome apartment) for less rent than they were asking for my tiny 1 bedroom. I know it’s a different area, but it’s ridiculous how much they’re asking. Now that I’m splitting it with a roommate, I have twice the space for half the cost!

If you really want to know what these peeps are like, walk in wearing your sweats or work-​out duds. Heck, it’s a great way to size places up no matter what you’re shopping for.
I say do this because I would want to know how people are treated in certain places, and it very rarely fails. The lady who I dealt with at these apartments is a perfect example of why this works. You will find out what kind of aura or attitude a place really has, and let me assure you that in this case it’s not a very pleasant one. This experience completely explains their very low rating on other apartment websites.
The grounds are very nice and I do understand why my agent sent me here. However, there’s way too many places in Houston with so much to offer to give in to this type of vibe.